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Not God’s Will: Bosworth Preaches Bad Politics and Bad Religion

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Annette Bosworth continues to demonstrate her unfitness for any public office. In her continuing melange of traveling medicine show and revival tent pretense, she uses her Friday Facebook devotional video (not real Scripture, mind you, certainly not Matthew 6 as she shows off at Hy-Vee, but some sappy slop that sounds like Sibby's New Age Theology) to announce campaign volunteer training at 1 p.m. Two major campaign errors here:

  1. She says the training is at 5000 S. Minnesota Avenue, Suite 100. That's the Preventive Health Strategies non-profit office. I have documented this violation of PHS's 501(c)3 status multiple times (here, here, and here). Bosworth reinforces my point by announcing she is using her non-profit to forward her political campaign.
  2. Bosworth posts this video at 5 a.m. Friday. The training is for 1 p.m. Friday. Maybe Bosworth can count on a loyal cadre of brainwashed followers to drop their Friday plans and come do her bidding, but real outreach to a broader pool of possible volunteers requires more lead time than one work shift. Bosworth has no plan, no strategy, and apparently no respect for the schedules of others.

Bosworth disguises her fantastic selfishness in piety. She said early in her campaign that it's God's will (not hers, not her husband Chad's, but Almighty God's!) that she run for office. She continues to peddle that line on her very messy blog:

I have asked God on more than one occasion in the last 6 months, “Are you certain I am the one you want to do this?” I keep getting the same answer . . and step back into the spotlight. That is when affirmations of God’s favor surface. It is in God’s plan that the next US Senator from South Dakota is not wealthy by earthly measures... [Annette Bosworth, "Faith, Fortitude, and Fear," blog, 2013.12.23].

Let me remind everyone that I am married to a Christian. We've been committed to each other for over twelve years. Not once have I heard my wife say that her choice to take a job, go to school, have a child, or attend seminary was "God's will." She has chosen every one of those paths.

Let's drop the fantasy talk, Annette: running for Senate is your choice, Annette, not God's. Living in the RV was your choice, not God's. Making less than poverty wages to support your family is your choice, not God's.

Bosworth's blog prayer devolves from that claim of divine backing for her Senate campaign to theological incoherence. I reprint in full and insert numbers for reference:

I have a prayer for my boys, my husband, me, and the voters of my state. I pray that the voters of the state of South Dakota will not see my lack of things1. We teach our boys the power of corporate prayer and combine that with fasting2. [Fasting: defined as going without . . not necessarily food.] Even for mature Christians these concepts humble us in our attempts. For boys at the ages of 7, 10 and 13 , this is tough stuff. My middle son, Walker, has been publicly displaying his prayer by wearing his Mom for US Senate t-shirt for over 150 days in a row now3. We teach them that if you are praying for something you have the means and ability to do yourself, you are wasting God’s time. But if you pray for things that are clearly beyond your abilities, then you honor God4. God honors bold prayers because bold prayers honor God5. Pray that I do not embarrass God on this journey [Bosworth, 2013.12.23].

Blah blah blah:

  1. Bosworth prays that voters not see facts about herself that she herself is touting as merits.
  2. Bosworth rationalizes her failure to use her medical skills to provide a stable income for her family and her husband's failure to provide any legitimate income as holy fasting. Dressing up your destructive decisions as piety is wrong.
  3. Wearing a t-shirt promoting a Senate candidate is marketing, not prayer.
  4. Even Annette acknowledges that running for Senate and being a Senator is beyond her abilities.
  5. Bosworth confuses God with Fortune (Sibby! New Age Theology again!). Boldness wins no special favor with the Christian God, whose Son professed a fondness for the meek.

Annette Bosworth is abusing the political process and the public trust for her own benefit, and she's preaching bad Christianity to boot. Bad campaigning is worse than no campaigning, because it takes resources and attention away from real candidates and real issues. And bad Christianity is worse than no Christianity because it can deceive the believers.

I could say it's God's will that I blog to protect the public and the Church from Bosworth's bad-faith politics. But we'd all know that's bunk. I'm just a guy. Annette Bosworth is just a gal. We neither one are God's messenger. I am responsible for my own choices. I'm trying to remind Annette of her responsibility for hers.

39 Comments

  1. Rick 2013.12.28

    This personal train wreck would make an interesting national documentary. Candidate runs for U.S. Senate but, with eyes wide open, steers herself straight into felony charges and prison.

  2. chris 2013.12.28

    Gah. Now she's starting to sound like the mom in "Carrie".

  3. Lynn G. 2013.12.28

    Rick and maybe to add never realizes why or remains till the end in denial. What a terrible waste.

  4. interested party 2013.12.28

    Insert himself as the gender pronoun, Rick and you could be talking about Mike Rounds.

  5. owen reitzel 2013.12.28

    She belongs on Comedy Central

  6. Jim 2013.12.28

    Blessed are the Cheesemakers...

  7. Cranky Old Dude 2013.12.28

    Used to have two rules where I worked:
    No.1 Don't make my job any harder than it already is.

    No.2 Don't get to thinking everyone here is as stupid as you are.

    She's violating rule No. 2.

  8. Jackilope 2013.12.28

    My heart sinks reading that her 13 year old is wearing the same shirt for almost half a year. What kind of parent is okay with that, let alone encourages and posts about it?

    How long will it take before legal action catches up to what seems to be mentally ill, cultish grifters? There will always be the naive and extremist adults that fall victim to these people, but the true innocent victims appear to be the kids in this family.

  9. Roger Cornelius 2013.12.28

    For those that truly believe in the power of prayer, they know that God answers all prayers. Sometimes and probably too frequently for most, God's answer is a resounding NO!

  10. WestRiver 2013.12.28

    Although I DO NOT agree with Chad's philosophy (she did give him the credit) about what we can and should ask for in prayer as it goes against scripture entirely "Do not be anxious about anything, but in EVERY situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6 (accent on EVERY is mine) I do have to add another footnote. Annette states "We teach them that if you are praying for something you have the means and ability to do yourself, you are wasting God’s time." Hmm...so, she should quit praying about her finances and the success of her clinic..because we know she's already a Dr. and capable of taking care of her family if she would just work a few days, maybe weeks, or months in a row instead of closing the clinic all of the time and traipsing off on the campaign trail or to the Philippines? And according to her she should never have been living in the RV or praying about it because she could have just lived at her sister's house or with some of Chad's family (if they still call him family)? She should have been able to pay back the raffle ticket holders without prayer IF she wouldn't have spent the money? And the beat goes on....and the beat goes on..

  11. WestRiver 2013.12.28

    Cory...according to her financial disclosure they paid for A LOT of campaign t-shirts and since no one else is wearing them then I am sure Walker has a clean shirt to wear every day! And 5000 S. Minnesota #100 is also the clinic address...

  12. CD 2013.12.28

    You know what else costs money? Shirts that have her name displayed as a complete knockoff of the Che Guevara t-shirt she used to wear... All because Chad thought it would be a funny spin on things. I have witnessed, firsthand, how their instability has impacted those boys...

  13. Jim 2013.12.28

    She should auction the Che shirt.

  14. Taunia 2013.12.28

    I hope Annette goes all the way to the primary, then files independent to go to the general (can she?).

    Then I hope she runs for every other office, too. This is some of the best non-fiction drama I've ever read, a real page turner.

    How will it end?

  15. Lynn G. 2013.12.28

    Taunia, Dr. Bos for President in 2016?

  16. Jerry 2013.12.28

    There were a couple of supporters on Madville for the Bos in the voting that took place a few days ago. I would like to see the people who support this candidate in person, so I could have a good chuckle.

  17. Donald Pay 2013.12.28

    Just a little conspiracy theory I have been pondering this morning----

    OK, I with we all agree the Bosworth campaign is going nowhere. She wants us to believe she is sacrificing monetarily while she listens to God telling her to run for office, etc., etc. Consider this: God, I think, is the righty power structure, and winning a South Dakota Senate seat isn't the issue.

    Here's my hypothesis: The Bosworth campaign is a way for the righty power structure to test out what types of money laundering machinations may allowed in states and nationally during the 2016 Presidential campaign.

    They did a similar thing two years ago with non-profits that didn't do squat for public welfare, and IRS started coming down on them. Now they've got Bosworth as a supposed poster child for public service. Now they can run all sorts of money through this thing, siphoning off dollars here and there to who knows how many faux companies and non-profits set up to make it look all legal, but which are just pipelines to candidate or special interest campaigns. Put God in it, and it all has more protection under the religion clause of the First Amendment.

    So, my guess is winning is not the point of Bosworth's campaign. And it may not be, as I and Cory and others think, a way to split the Republican vote so Rounds can win.

    Bosworth is not serving God or Rounds so much as the righty-religious-Republican power elite by pioneering and testing the use of these new money laundering gimmicks (Preventive Health Services, etc.) as a means to skirt campaign laws.

    These appear to be obvious violations, but not one of her opponents seems to care. Why? What if they are all in on the scam?

    My guess is the righty/religious elite that runs the Republican Party wants to test out ways to launder money in campaign-like situations, and what better place to do that than South Dakota, where there is no public morality, and few laws or rules governing this sort of behavior.

    Despite all the poverty claims, I'm guessing someone in the righty-religious-Republican power structure is paying off the Bosworth-Haber's in some fashion (or have pledged under the table to provide something of value in the future) for them testing out various campaign money scams.

  18. interested party 2013.12.28

    Bleeding the Beast, Mr. Pay? Fascinating.

  19. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.12.28

    Donald, I really, really, really want a way to test that hypothesis. Will current FEC documentation requirements allow us to connect enough dots? If someone's laundering money, wouldn't it be easier to do it through non-federal candidates so they wouldn't have to deal with the FEC at all?

  20. Kurt Evans 2013.12.28

    I believe the Bible is true, and I'm pretty open-minded about "God told me" claims, but even if I thought He'd told me our next U.S. Senator wasn't going to be wealthy by earthly measures, I probably wouldn't say so publicly. If you've heard Him correctly, you'll still seem foolish to unbelievers, and if you haven't, you'll end up seeming foolish to almost everyone.

    Having said that, the Bible teaches that God works "all things" according to His will (Ephesians 1:11). By that standard Chad and Annette's past decisions and current circumstances would obviously be God's will, even if they involve some measure of error.

    Biblically, it was God's will for me to run a Libertarian U.S. Senate campaign from September 14 to December 18 this year, but that doesn't necessarily mean He told me to get in or to get out. Sometimes it's His will to let us make mistakes, and sometimes it takes a while to see whether we've done the right thing.

    Taunia wrote: "I hope Annette goes all the way to the primary, then files independent to go to the general (can she?)."

    That was possible when I ran for the U.S. House in 1996, but I think the state legislature has moved the filing date for independents up at least four times since then, from August, to two weeks after the primary, to primary day, to two weeks before the primary, to the current date in April.

    South Dakota Republicans have gradually made running outside the major-party power structure a lot more difficult than it used to be, and almost no one has even noticed.

  21. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.12.28

    Kurt's right: a partisan primary candidate cannot run Indy after losing the primary. Indies have to file by the last Tuesday of April, courtesy of 2012 HB 1182, brought to you by mostly House Republicans, a nearly unanimous Senate, and Governor Daugaard.

    Jim, I'd seriously consider bidding on that shirt. It got me one of my best traffic spikes of the summer.

  22. interested party 2013.12.28

    "I believe the Bible is true, but..." why south dakota will always be a flyover state.

  23. Lynn G. 2013.12.28

    Kurt I know it's off topic but I've seen where you posted something about $2,500 to turn in a petition to run for office outside the main political parties? That's crazy! This state and country in my opinion needs more competition meaning multi-parties to bring a better product.

  24. Kurt Evans 2013.12.28

    Lynn G. wrote: "Kurt I know it's off topic but I've seen where you posted something about $2,500 to turn in a petition to run for office outside the main political parties? That's crazy! This state and country in my opinion needs more competition meaning multi-parties to bring a better product."

    The $2,500 fee was for the Secretary of State's office to email me the Libertarian Party voter rolls, and I definitely agree that it's crazy.

  25. interested party 2013.12.28

    So, Mr. Evans: a run for US Senate is the best way to fix that perceived flaw in South Dakota codified law?

  26. Kurt Evans 2013.12.28

    "Interested party" asked: "So, Mr. Evans: a run for US Senate is the best way to fix that perceived flaw in South Dakota codified law?"

    Maybe if I follow up the run for U.S. Senate with a lot of really loud complaining (ha ha).

  27. Taunia 2013.12.28

    Lynn G: Dr Bos for Master of the Universe.

  28. grudznick 2013.12.28

    Mr. H, the righteous lawgivers like Mr. Howie want you to keep blogging at this young lady as do many of us bloggers who watch and are entertained.

  29. Lanny V Stricherz 2013.12.29

    Jackilope, you are right about the shirt. Even worse was the video of the boy begging for money for his Mom's airline fair to the Phillipines.

    One has to wonder at this point are there maybe one or two or maybe even ten of our current US Senators who are this far off the beaten path? If so that would explain a lot about what is wrong with our Congress.

  30. WestRiver 2013.12.29

    If you spend 10 minutes with her kids, this is the spiel you will get, nearly word-for-word and anyone who has spent any time with them will be able to attest to it. "We are poor, homeless, and my Mom's clinic doesn't make money because the government and people don't like it when you do good things; the government and people will take everything away from you if you do good things because that's what happened to us." Sad isn't it that they say this by rote and like robots...sad that they will grow up believing if they do good they will lose.

  31. TG 2013.12.29

    Mr. Evans - who would you support now or would you support anyone? And if so, why? If no one, why?

  32. Lynn G. 2013.12.29

    What if someone like Dr. Bos actually did get elected to national office due to voter apathy, feeling powerless and disgust. Could it happen or did it? Michelle Bachman? Congress has just broke a new record for the lowest approval record ever! Scary!

  33. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.12.29

    Lynn, we can't let it happen.

  34. DeejayBeejr 2013.12.29

    While the Rounds camp leave her alone, the other candidates will go after her. They will not want her siphoning off any of their votes. She also brings the female factor. Anytime I have seen one woman running against a bunch of guys, they woman candidate seems to pull in votes she may not have ordinarily gotten. Although, this may not be the case in a primary where voters would be more educated and less likely to vote based on looks or gender. But in short, none of the candidates are going to waste time or money campaigning against her before she has even filed petitions. But I have no doubt they are all reading this blog and keeping a file of Bosworth posts.

  35. Kurt Evans 2013.12.29

    "TG" wrote: "Mr. Evans - who would you support now or would you support anyone? And if so, why? If no one, why?"

    Cory reported my thoughts about the Republican candidates on October 14: "Evans has a slight preference for the policies and personality of GOP primary challenger Larry Rhoden. Evans says the state senator from Union Center 'seems to be unusually careful (especially by campaign standards) to adhere to the literal truth, as well as to follow the Golden Rule in his dealings with his political opponents.'"
    https://madvilletimes.com/2013/10/evans-wont-seek-libertarian-primary-synergy-with-nelson/

    I also support Senator Pressler's effort to qualify as an independent, largely because he advocates getting out of Afghanistan and reining in the NSA.

    If the general election comes down to Weiland, Pressler and Rounds, I'll probably hold my nose and vote for the authoritarian Catholic (ha ha).

  36. Charlie Hoffman 2013.12.30

    Grud why would Mr. Mercer ask you that vote totals in Clark Co. are all that truly mattered in the 2011 GOP Gubernatorial primary?

    What does Mr. Mercer know that we don't? And when did he know it Grud?

    Grud are you a paid operative hired to put intellectually driven humor on all negative reads?

    Kurt Evans I believe many folks believe and think very close to the way you do. The truth seems not to get very far though anymore as everyone wants to own their own version of it. And that just can't be.

  37. Charlie Hoffman 2013.12.30

    Grud that should read 2010 primary.

  38. Kurt Evans 2013.12.30

    Charlie Hoffman wrote: "Kurt Evans I believe many folks believe and think very close to the way you do. The truth seems not to get very far though anymore as everyone wants to own their own version of it. And that just can't be."

    Thanks, Charlie. I agree.

  39. Cam 2014.01.01

    I'm a full on conservative and I agree with nearly everything bad that's said about her. She went from kinda weird to full on nuts after comparing Obama to the Holocaust on her Facebook page.
    Actively working towards ruining our nation is bad but the Holocaust was way worse, in my opinion.

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